He’s shooting better (52.7 percent overall and 37 percent from three), scoring more (22.8 per game) while taking fewer shots, rebounding more, turning the ball over less and has an All-Star level PER of 23.5. Monday night he dropped 31 on the Timberwolves Monday and seemed to do well against every defender Rick Adelman threw at him.

It doesn’t make up for the last five years and it’s a small sample size, but maybe coach Dwane Casey can work miracles. Maybe, just maybe, he has figured it all out.

What seems different is his shots seem less contested — watching a number of his attempts from last season and this (thank you Synergy) he is getting cleaner looks. If that means putting the ball on the floor and turning a three into an 18 footer without a hand in his face, he’s doing it. If he can get all the way to the rim he is, something he did not do in previous years.

Still, it’s not a matter of where the looks are coming from as much as he is hitting a higher percentage of shots. This season Bargnani is getting 22 percent of his shot attempts on spot up and he’s hitting 56.1 percent of those shots. Last season he got about the same percentage of his offense on those looks but shot just 39.2 percent. This season he is getting some in looks in isolation (18.5 percent of his shots, shooting 43 percent on them) and is doing well setting the pick then popping (shooting 47.8 percent on those).

The one difference from last year is Casey hasn’t sent him to the post as often, even although Bargnani was fairly effective there. He shoots more on the perimeter, but he is getting inside to rebound better than he ever has.

The bottom line is he’s getting cleaner looks and making more shots. Small sample size warning, we’re not going to say he has figured it all out yet. Will his focus and effort drift over the course of the season as it has in years past? The book is still out on that one.

But early on, we seem to have the Andrea Bargnani the Raptors have patiently (or not so patiently) waited for.